Are They Terrorist Sympathizers or do They Just Disagree with the War on Terror? A Comment on Testing Theories of Radicalization in Polls of U.S. Muslims

Abstract

McCauley (this issue) develops an analysis of the predictors of sympathetic, incipient support for terrorism. While we endorse the conceptual focus on terrorism as a process, our concern is that the data reported by McCauley do not address predictors of sympathy for terrorism. Rather, aspects of that contribution conflate opposition to the War on Terror with incipient support for terrorism. This is intensely problematic not least because the data reported actually suggest that opposition to the War on Terror and sympathy for terrorism are distinct. © 2012 The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.